Tag: medical

Recently I have been contemplating on doing a blog post on Mariah’s first dental experience.

As many of you know, Mariah is 2 years old and it was time to get her first dental appointment out of the way. I am pretty sure you guys can imagine how that went. Mariah did not like the idea of someone restraining her to brush her teeth. She is so independent that it is a fight to brush her teeth for her.

Facts about infants/toddler dental health:

Start early! When your little one is an infant it is important to clean their gums. Using a infant brush or wash cloth will do the trick. If you start early your child will less likely fight you when you are brushing their teeth.

Consistency is key! A child will become accustomed teeth brushing and it will become apart of their routine.

Once your little one shows sign of teeth it is important to get them to a pediatric dentist. We waited until Mariah was 2.5 years old but it is suggested when your child is at least one years old.

If you wait too long to encourage dental care, then there is a strong chance that you will come out of pocket to care for those baby teeth.

Mind Body Soul is a three week series where we learn tips, techniques, and points for our goal of transformation and renewal. We have three weeks to work on ourselves so we can start off feeling revived and refreshed to take on new projects, businesses, and plans that we may have in the second half of 2018 and the new school year. Ultimately our aim is to pour into ourselves, so we can better pour into others. For us women, we often put self care on the bottom of our to-do list after performing our wifey duties, taking care of our children, running our homes, being the president of the PTA, having 5 businesses and ministries, and taking over the world. No wonder we get burnt out and we are tired all the time! Self care needs to be at the top. How can we be better moms, teachers, managers, leaders, or women if we do not take care of the women in the mirror?

Sleep

Today is the last day of our series: Mind, Body, and Soul. We are going to be talking about sleep.

Psalm 127:2 tells us that “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep”. Reading closely, we find that God gives us sleep. God gives us sleep for a reason. He gives it to us so we can rest and feel rejuvenated for the next day’s work and responsibilities. God gave us a gift of slumber, and most of us are not accepting the gift. We are putting it on the shelf and only opening it until we feel burnt out, exhausted, and completely worn down. That is not how He intended it to be.

The society we live in does not care about sleep. We are conditioned to think that if we are not constantly moving around then we are not doing enough. It is a society that is so set on “Go, Go, Go!” When really, we should be telling our late activities and invites, “No, No, No!”

A good amount of sleep per night leads us to a healthier life. We know that when we stay up late, and wake up early, we feel like…so bad the next day. We are stressed out, irritated, sleepy, less productive, and overall just not as happy as we would have been if we had a nice sleep the night before. These feelings are not good to have if we want to be females of the future. Overtime, lack of sleep causes health issues; we are more likely to develop illnesses and inflammation. Lack of sleep forms dark circles under our eyes, forms depression, and some women report that they gain weight.

Sleep affects our quality of life. Good sleep improves the way our brain functions. People that have a good sleep routine, schedule, and amount of hours, are known to be more creative, have better memory, and perform better on tests and competitions. Sleep sharpens our attention, leading us to learn more and to learn better.

Us women, need our sleep. I know it is hard to put it in our schedules. We are so busy during the day, but we must make the time to rest. Jesus, who was on a boat in the middle lake when a storm was surrounding Him, was sleeping. Even during the whirlwind of work that surrounds us, we must sleep. We know that God is protecting us during our sleep. Jesus did not drown during that storm, He immediately calmed it down, and that is what He does when you are sleeping.

Now how much sleep should you get? Typically 8 hours is a good amount to aim for.

According to consumerhealthdigest.com, women need 20 more minutes of sleep than men. As ladies our brains are wired different, and we often multitask, so our brains needs to restore and repair itself during the night.

It is found that going to sleep at the same time and waking up at the same time helps with feeling great the next day instead of tired and sluggish. Some women have trouble falling asleep. I personally bought myself an oil diffuser.

This is the exact one I bought. I fill it up with water and then pour droplets of lavender. Using this before going to bed and during the night as helped me relax and sleep better. Before I go to bed, I often do five minutes of yoga and read a good, light, happy book. Some women read the Bible before bed, or some read a nice devotional. Do not read or watch anything horrific or extremely mentally stimulating before bed. That will keep your mind up. I personally write in a journal as well, just to get my last thoughts out before the day is over. This helps me get the clutter out of mind and onto paper so I am not in the dark overthinking. I used to have this problem and it affected my sleep so badly. It would take me forever to fall asleep and I would have bad dreams about my anxious thoughts and worries. A journal is amazing to keep on a table beside your bed along with a book. If you do wake up in the middle of the night, then you have a heartfelt book to read to make you sleepy again, or you can jot down an idea or worry you have on paper, then go right back to sleep.

Sleep is so important. We will be more productive, friendlier, happier, and less stressed out if we take care of ourselves and sleep! Even if we have thousands of emails to reply back to, if we have a nice amount of sleep every night and a rock solid bedtime routine, we will handle life’s tasks with grace. So now after you read this, decide what time you will be going to sleep and waking up, next make sure to pick out a candle scent or oil diffuser. Then pick out a nice book and journal and keep that next to your bed. This will put the ‘good’ in “good morning”. Have a happy and restful sleep!

____ is a three week series where we learn tips, techniques, and points for our goal of transformation and renewal. We have three weeks to work on ourselves so we can start off feeling revived and refreshed to take on new projects, businesses, and plans that we may have in the second half of 2018 and the new school year. Ultimately our aim is to pour into ourselves, so we can better pour into others. For us women, we often put self care on the bottom of our to-do list after performing our wifey duties, taking care of our children, running our homes, being the president of the PTA, having 5 businesses and ministries, and taking over the world. No wonder we get burnt out and we are tired all the time! Self care needs to be at the top. How can we be better moms, teachers, managers, leaders, or women if we do not take care of the women in the mirror?

This week we are focusing on our physical health.

Clean Eating and all that good stuff…

How do we feel when we eat that bag of candy or that tub of ice-cream? It is literally a sugar rush. We are so excited to eat it. Our mouth is watering, we are rushing to open the bag or container and take that first bite. Damn, this doesn’t taste good; this tastes delicious. We look at the name of the ice cream and ponder it. We look at colorful wrapping of the candy we bought at the gas station. As we are eating all this wonderful sugar, we look at the back of the packaging to read the nutritional facts. 200 calories per 1 serving (⅓ cup is 1 serving). How much is ⅓ cup anyway? We continue to read: 50g of sugar per serving. Ok that sounds like a lot, but maybe it isn’t, we think. Suddenly we are curious to see how much is ⅓ cup or 1 serving. We continue to eat the candy or the ice-cream as we rummage through our cabinets to find our measuring cup. We look at the numbers. Wow, I ate way more than ⅓ cup of this. I just ate 50 sugar cubes in less than a minute?!! Immediately we feel the excitement of our sugar indulgence, drop. We feel guilty. We feel fat. We feel that acne emerging on our skin (to those that can sugar without breaking out…I am jealous of you.) We then decide to put the rest of our treat in the fridge so someone else can eat it. (Or maybe once we are done feeling bad about ourselves we can get back to it. Come on ladies, who else has been there?) Thirty minutes later, our body feels sluggish. We are cranky and irritated because now we feel gross and greasy. We think: why did I spend thirty dollars at a frozen yogurt store? (True story: my parents and I did this)

When I say “cleaning eating and all that good stuff”, I am not talking about my favorite chips (jalapeno), the brownie mix that sits in my mom’s cabinet, or the delicious “genuine Jamaican pineapple soda” in a bright yellow green 2 liter bottle sitting in Publix’s soda aisle. That “good stuff” is actually bad stuff. It is not real food. (that why it is going to be labeled as bad stuff). Though I am speaking against it, I am not going to sit here and front that I do not eat bad stuff. I do. I am going to be real, I eat junk. So, I know how it makes my body feel. I know how it makes my mind feel. I know how it makes my emotions and wallet feel. I know how it makes my face feel. I bet you know the feeling too. Let’s vow to not feel that feeling that we all feel when we eat that junk, and only eat that junk sometimes. Let’s talk about the word sometimes.

Sometimes means occasionally or once in awhile. Sometimes does NOT mean to eat that whole cake every week. It does NOT mean grabbing that bag of chips and soda everytime you purchase a sub, because you want to make it a combo. Sometimes means once in awhile we are going to eat some cake. Let me say it again: Sometimes we are going to eat SOME cake.

My diet used to be really bad. Am I still eating fake food? Yes, but sometimes. Our goal is to make that all the time bad diet into a sometimes bad diet into a never bad diet. It is possible, it can be done, and it will give us many positive benefits.

So…what is clean eating? How does one eat dirty or eat clean? Clean eating is eating whole foods that are REAL foods. These foods are not or they are very minimally processed…they are more natural than (sadly) a lot of food on the market. Processed food can even include mashing raw apples to make applesauce. So not ALL processed food is bad. The point is to avoid foods that are majorly processed… like woah, that new Apple Rocket Sugar Heaven Blueberry pancakes with fake apples and blueberries chunks in the middle?? Ooh that sounds good, YES! Yes I mean that, but NO, don’t buy that! Ingredients such as Caramel color and high fructose corn syrup are examples too. Ultra processed foods like those pancakes activate dopamine in our brain; this makes us crave to eat more and more…spending more on fake food to meet our nutritional needs, spending more on an increased number of doctor visits, and spending more time feel disgusting

10 Benefits of clean eating include: longer and a healthier life, reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, reduced risk of high blood pressure, more energy, less breakouts, improved mood, lower food bills, lower health bills, improved brain power, and weight loss. There are SOOOO many more benefits. As moms, we will feel more relaxed and less cranky. Raising young kids are already stressful enough, but eating clean foods (and having our children eat clean foods) reduces the irritability we show our husbands, our kids, our family, and even ourselves. We feel less stressed. We can manage better. As women, we already are pressured to feel ugly about ourselves from commercials or pop culture & entertainment. Instead, with clean eating, we can FEEL & be beautiful (not for them, but of course 100% for ourselves). We will live longer to raise our children. We will have pumped up brain power so we can be highly effective in our businesses, ministries, and communities. Do I need to say more? Basically, we will feel better, live better, do better, be better, and look better. Isn’t that better than a bunch of health risks and moodiness after eating a whole cake?

Ok sign me up for a better life. Now what do I do? Now, let’s go back into the fridge and grab those cookies and throw them away in the trash. Next, make a trip to a grocery store. If you can, go to Whole Foods or a farmer’s market. You can still go to Publix (that’s where I go) or Walmart, or where ever is close. A rule of thumb that I do is pick up a can of food and look at the ingredient list. If there are a lot of ingredients that you can’t pronounce or you don’t know what the hell it is, put it down. (Like, what the hell is Red 5? Am I eating a crayon?) Look for foods with a short and easily identifiable ingredient list. (Ok, I know what coconuts are, I know what mangos are…) Opt for more raw veggies and fruits. Nuts can be bought for snacks. Quinoa and oats can be used when you need some whole grains. I like to buy cashew or almond milk instead of cow milk. (Cow milk has so many hormones in it) Salmon and beans for protein are options too. And, Yes, healthy can taste good too! I LOVE blending up pineapple chunks, peanuts, and bananas, to make a smoothie. Buy some avocados to make a nice spread or guac.

If you ARE going to eat a nice big chocolate cupcake, please ladies, make it a sometimes thing. Yes, you can eat that doughnut if you are at a friend’s birthday…but don’t eat the entire box! Every day you don’t have to eat two chocolate bars. The key is sometimes…or better: significantly reduce highly processed foods in your diet to none. All of us aren’t perfect. Some people can quit cold turkey, and others, like myself, start off slow…but a step in the right direction is what counts. Let’s promise ourselves (and I am promising myself too) a better today and a better future…full of healthy choices and happiness.